blog.bioethics.net
a Nature Top 50 science blog from The American Journal of Bioethics
Entries from blog.bioethics.net tagged with 'research'
Is Nanotechnology the Key to Happiness?
Nanotechnology has been called a great many things--the great leveler, the panacea to all that ails the world, the technology that will allow us to solve all of our problems from world hunger to pollution. But this month, at nanotechnow.com, Tihamer Toth-Fejel makes the rather provocative claim that the "exponential... (read the rest)
Nonsense. It's Good For You.
Who knew that "The Ministry of Silly Walks" and other such absurdities could actually strengthen our brains? Yes, it's true. Nonsense is good for your noggin. But it isn't just the absurd, but the out of place, the "something that is off" sensor that is tripped in your brain, including... (read the rest)
Something to Say about Personal Genomics? Here's Your Chance.
Hat tip to the Business Ethics blog for letting us know about a new research study on personal genomics, privacy and consent currently underway being conducted online from researchers at at University of British Columbia, Saint Mary's University, & Ryerson University. Called a "deliberative" survey, the study differs from the... (read the rest)
Follow-up on The Wild West of Nanotechnology
Today, The Scientist has revealed more about the scandal involving nanoscientist Chiming Wei which was first written about here on bioethics.net. This scandal has brought into question what counts as "expertise" in nanomedicine, The Scientist claims, and one source was quoted as saying that it may have even damaged the... (read the rest)
Be Careful What You Wish For
In collaboration with Nanotech-Now.com and Lifeboat Foundation, Tihamer Toth-Fejel comments as this month's guest columnist about the prospect of a much less ominous future for nanotechnology that most. Yet, as the title suggests, it still presents some issues for society that heretofore we may not have tackled or even thought... (read the rest)
Special Double Issue AJOB 9:6-7 Available Now on Bioethics.net
Facebook and other social networking sites. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing. A taxonomy for empirical bioethics. The issues were so important, so numerous, and so overwhelming that it took a special DOUBLE issue of AJOB to cover them all. The response from the field, and from those outside bioethics, was so voluminous... (read the rest)
What's It Like to Be a Middle Aged Guinea Pig?
If you want to know, read the L.A. Times Booster Shots post which recounts Rosie Mestel's recent experience volunteering for a cancer epidemiology study. A first hand account of what it's like to be interviewed by a health services researcher, this blogger goes from being a bit reticent about giving... (read the rest)
Racing For a Cure--And Taking Genetic Samples at the Same Time?
As a woman and a supporter of research of all kinds, I still have a hard time swallowing this request: "You are healthy. You feel great. Can you help us out by participating in a research study where we will biopsy your breast and take out healthy tissue for our... (read the rest)
Don't Put Your Baby on a Diet
One of the most frustrating aspects of reviewing research studies that at the end of them, when the data is reported--either in journals or the media--one has to wonder, "What is a person supposed to do with this data?" Here is one more study where this is obviously true: as... (read the rest)
Detecting Disease by Tattoo
If you ever swore to your self (or to another) that you'd never get a tattoo, you may just want to reconsider. You may within just a couple of years have a very good reason to get one made out of "nanoink". As recently reported on Discovery News, "nanoink" allows... (read the rest)
Baby Einstein? Well, Maybe Not So Much.
We already knew that too much television watching was not good for the health of adults and teens and even young children, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. Plus, it turns many of our brains into gelatin--how else could millions of Americans watch American Idol and The Bachelor? But how... (read the rest)
Smokers Will Quit for Money and Pet Health
Two recent stories about smokers have caught my eye. One, published from the University of Pennsylvania, has found that smokers paid $750 to quit smoking are 3 times more likely to quit smoking and be smoke free a year later as their unpaid counterparts. As MSNBC reports, the study implemented... (read the rest)
Turn Off That TV or You are Going to Be Depressed.
It turns out that the amount of television that your teenager watches during his or her youth may be a determinant of whether they develop depression later in life, a recent study has found. According a report in the Los Angeles Times, researchers from Pitt and Harvard found that for... (read the rest)
Fertility Fix from Adult Stem Cells?
According to LA Times' Booster Shots, IPS cells have been coaxed into becoming germ cells that could allow infertile couples to conceive from healthy sperm and egg cells. Of course, this experiment is a long way from being safely or effectively performed in humans and like with most stem cell... (read the rest)
A Well-Timed Step Forward
Today, the FDA announced its approval of the first stem cell clinical trial in human beings. Geron will perform the trial on 10 spinal cord injured patients. To call this trial, "medical treatment" is the biggest overstatement one could make--and fully illustrates one of the biggest ethical problems with stem... (read the rest)
Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula, and the Cereal Gender Gap
And for the academic research one ought never have had funded: "You are what your mother eats: evidence for maternal preconception diet influencing foetal sex in humans". I can't possibly thank Brandon Keim of Wired Science Blog enough for bringing this research to my attention.... (read the rest)
Free Market Madness Hits Stores On Inauguration Day
A few of us here at bioethics.net were recently informed that something very important is happening on January 20th. Anyone know what? Does that date mean anything to anyone? Well, for starters, an exciting new book called "Free Market Madness: Why Economics is at Odds with Human Nature, and Why... (read the rest)
Who Cares about Nanotechnology Anyway?
Today on Nanotech-Now, I discuss what it would take to make the abstract discussions about "nanoethics" as a discipline, sub-discipline, or whatever it is into a meaningful discussion about a future where nanotechnologies impact our world and do so in a way that we have anticipated ethical issues that actually... (read the rest)
Didn't You Just Know This Was True? Vicks May Be Bad For You
How many of you have the urge upon reading this headline "Vicks Might Make Kids Sicker" to immediately forward the article to your mother and say, "See I told you so all those years ago! I knew that nasty stuff was making me feel worse!!" Actually, those noxious fumes radiating... (read the rest)
New Stem Cell Guidelines from ISSCR
Today the International Society for Stem Cell Research (www.isscr.org) is releasing "Guidelines for the Clinical Translation of Stem Cells," which co-chair of the ISSCR task force, Olle Lindvall, MD, PhD, calls a "roadmap." The long-awaited report condemns websites that hawk bogus stem cell therapies to the desperately ill. I chanced... (read the rest)
Iran Loves Stem Cells
According to Payvand's Iran News, Iran's Cord Blood Bank has announced that the government of Iran will be investing $2.5 billion over 5 years to study stem cells. Not liberal in regard to much, according to Payvand, Iran is pretty lenient when it comes to stem cell research--even doing embryonic... (read the rest)
Where It Rains, There's Autism.
Recent research reports suggest that children who live in rainier climates are at greater risk of developing autism than those who don't. According to US News & World Report, the study done by researchers at Cornell University have a number of hypotheses including that in rainier spots children stay indoors... (read the rest)
Stem Cells? I Don't Know, but I Want To.
According to the National Poll on Children's Health--only 11 percent of voters feel as though they know a lot about stem cell research, says University of Michigan Health Service. The silver lining? Data suggests that voters WANT to know about stem cell research, but they just don't know much yet.... (read the rest)
Music You Can Save a Life To...
Ever have a Bee Gees song stuck in your head and you just can't get it out? Well, if you are an EMT, that just might be a good thing. According to researchers, the 103 beats per minute in the ever classic "Stayin' Alive" provides the perfect rhythm for performing... (read the rest)
Michigan Stem Cell Battle
Now here's something you don't see every day: in Michigan, the opponents to Proposition 2, a bill about embryonic stem cell research, argue in a television spot that such a bill is "too costly to Michigan taxpayers", says the AP. Well, it turns out that Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science... (read the rest)
The Enemy of My Enemy is a Hippie Ice Cream Maker
Breast Milk Ice Cream? Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream was asked by PETA to make its creamy delight from women's breast milk, rather than cow's, to bring attention to the fact that they believe that the milking of cows is cruel. Now, I agree with B&J that they can be... (read the rest)
Please Hold Still. Your HMO Will Only Pay For a 5 Minute Massage
It turns out that there actually is something called "healing touch". Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that a kind touch between persons reduces stress and lowers blood pressure, says USA Today. These findings were particularly true for a 30-minute massage in men for whom it caused the release... (read the rest)
Gridiron Ganglia Gifts
It's time we made donating bodies to science cool again. So when former NFL players and a women's soccer player announce that they are going to donate their battered brains to science, one stops to think: "That's pretty cool." Mary Roach's "Stiff" almost got us there--but a few celebrity athletes... (read the rest)
Flatliners: Coming to a Hospital Near You
From Secondhand Smoke, Wesley Smith reports that researchers are attempting to understand near death experiences by studying what happens to heart attack patients after the heart stops or brain waves cease. What is the big white light? Are reported out of body experiences real? Can we find clues to what... (read the rest)
Stem Cells: Try This At Home
I'm thinking about having a menstrual blood collection party. I've just discovered in my pile of goodies from the two stem cell conferences I attended this summer a pamphlet about how one can become a distributor of C'ELLE, a service unveiled last spring to enable women to, well, not flush... (read the rest)
Who needs Jenny Craig when you can get slim in Second Life?
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that researchers at the University of Houston's Obesity Research Center is using Second Life to help overweight persons learn about and develop habits for a healthy lifestyle. Hmm...now let's see--there would seem to be a trend here. Earlier this week on bioethics.net, we posted a... (read the rest)
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